The Eternal Tribunal

After all the grandstanding that accompanied last year's release of the findings of the 9/11 Commission, I hoped we'd finally seen the last of Chuck Robb, Tom Kean, and the other members of this herd of media hogs. After all, the Commission was appointed to investigate and recommend changes, not to usurp the constitutional powers of the executive and legislative branches of government. Yet I feared that panel members, not content to allow the machinery of government to move forward, and far less interested in seeing the will of the people acted upon, would come screaming back to life at the most opportune moment.

That moment has come: today's New York Times reports that panel members are (basically) demanding that they, and not the people's elected representatives, call the shots as to what is, or isn't, done in the effort to protect America from another terrorist attack. And, giving kudos where they're due, the opening paragraph of the Times's story nails precisely what's behind the new camera hogging:

Members of the Sept. 11 commission, fearing that the Bush administration and Congress will never act on some of their recommendations, are joining together almost a year after completing their final report to press the White House for information showing whether the government has done enough to prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack, commission officials said.

Note the language: ". . . fearing that the bush administration and Congress will never act on some of their recommendations . . . ." Well, after all, there's no Constitutional mandate that either branch must act on ANY recommendation from the panel, let alone EVERY one of them. But the tender egos of panel members won't be salved until their posturing is chiseled in stone, the better to add to their resume and legacy a simple phrase: "saved America from terrorism."

Of course, that's only half the story. The other part is good old Washington politics at its pettiest: demand that the administration prove it has protected America, is protecting America, so that the panel may keep this story alive and fomenting all the way to '08. That way, even though there hasn't been another attack, and (we hope and pray) even if there isn't another one, the single president who has taken terrorism seriously can be raked over the coals by former politicians and assorted media hacks whose agenda is centered on discrediting the war on terror. If you were worried about a dull season ahead, the media feeding frenzy that would result from the reconstitution of this committee should relieve you of those worries, albeit at the expense of adding a thousand more of considerably greater weight.

So it's with great anticipation that I await new opportunities by the likes of Democratic bulldogs Richard Ben-Veniste and Jamie S. Gorelick, especially in light of the conflict of interests the latter's infamous wall of separation brought to last year's grandstanding. The Times reports that the committee, predictably, once again hopes to call senior administration officials, such as Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld, to testify -- or, perhaps more honestly, defend themselves -- before what is increasingly looking like a new Fifth Column in the federal government: the eternal tribunal, accountable to no one, responsible for nothing, and hungry for attention.

The entire scenario is a disgrace and a charade, and Republicans in Congress, the administration, and members of the conservative press (that means you, fellow bloggers) had better start the drumbeat of opposition to these poorly laid plans. All summers in Washington are long and hot, but there's no reason to allow this partisan crew to roast our top public servants for a second year in a row.